


It's the Mileage

by writingdetritus



Series: Radio Nowhere [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9470747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingdetritus/pseuds/writingdetritus
Summary: Rhys and Sasha make their way back to his room to talk more





	

**Author's Note:**

> a sort of continuation of this [fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5170013)

Back in his room, Rhys sat down nervously on the edge of the makeshift bed that had been created on top of a large desk. Sasha leaned against the doorway, grinning at the messy blankets and the towel haphazardly thrown onto the floor. Rhys made a mental note to clean up his trailer before having her step 100 feet near it.

“So now what?” Rhys asked nervously. He felt like a teenager on the first date with popular girl in school. Not that that ever happened. 

Sasha shrugged, smiling and walked over to Rhys. “Well, it is pretty cold in here,” Sasha said a little too pointedly, raising her eyebrows at the pile of blankets strewn behind Rhys. He felt his face suddenly burn, and Sasha laughed. 

“Help me up,” Sasha asked, leaning against the desk that was slightly too tall for her to sit on. “Would do it myself but…,” She gestured at her arm in the sling. 

Rhys felt like he was going to fall apart, but he put his hands under hers and lifted her easily onto the ledge. She grinned the entire time and the moment he let go, she pulled at his shirt to get him up on the table as well. Sheepishly, Rhys obliged, only to find himself nose to nose with a grinning Sasha. He quickly looked away, his stomach boiling with nerves.

“God, what a nerd,” Sasha laughed, putting her hand on his cheek and pulling him in for a kiss. Sasha pulled away just as Rhys was getting into it, and pulled at the blankets with her good arm, and clumsily threw them over her and Rhys’ heads.

“What are you doing?” Rhys asked, holding the blanket up with his arm. 

“I’m hiding from the world, and you’re doing it with me,” Sasha said, leaning back into a pile of pillows. “Don’t tell me you’ve never spent a night under the blankets, reading books or listening to the radio when you weren’t suppose to… or were you a stickler for the rules when you were a kid.”

“No!” Rhys said emphatically, slightly offended. “No, I would break rules. I thought you knew that about me.”

“Hmmm, I don’t know, seems like you only just learned how to the past year,” Sasha winked. “So, I like the new arm” She reached for Rhys’ robotic arm and admired the chrome shine of metal.

Rhys suddenly felt hot and claustrophobic. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna have to break down the fort,” He shakily smiled and pulled the blanket off his head, and wrapped it around Sasha, taking his hand away from her touch. Sasha was giving him a quizzical stare as he tucked the blanket under her chin, making him nervous. He slid off the desk and paced to the wall to turn off the overhead light. 

“What’s up?” Sasha asked from her nest.

“Hmm?” Rhys murmured, not turning around.

“Come back here,” Sasha commanded, snaking her hand out from under the blankets, reaching for Rhys. “Tell me about your new arm.”

“Nothing really to tell,” Rhys shrugged, turning around and looking at her, the moon shining down through the window and illuminating her green eyes. She scowled at him, dropping her hand. “Okay! Alright!” Rhys raised his hands in defense. “The upgrades came because I had to get rid of Jack!”

“Rhys,” Sasha’s eyes were huge. There was a dead silence between them. The silence wasn’t the kind that spoke volumes or what have you. It was thick and sticky and dead. Rhys was suddenly very aware of how cold it really was in the room by the metal door. He looked down at his hand, and it looked just as cold as the rest of the room. But when he looked up he saw Sasha in her blankets, her bangs kind of messy, her big eyes staring him down with a glare. She looked warm. 

“It was the only way,” Rhys muttered, rubbing the back of his hand, the smooth metal capturing what little heat his real hand could offer. “At least at that moment.”

“What was,” Sasha asked. But she seemed to already know what he was going to say, the pieces already having fallen into place.

“Ripping everything out,” Rhys leaned against the wall, suddenly overwhelmed with the painful memories of literally cutting Jack out of himself. Jeeze, that man left scars even after he was deleted dead. “I really felt… violated after that experience. Parts of me were literally taken over by some crazed egomaniac and… It felt good to rip him out. But then I had to replace everything and…” Rhys stuttered to a stop.

There was a soft rustle as Sasha slid off the desk, leaving the blankets behind. Rhys felt her hand slide up his chest and onto his face, making him look down at her. She wasn’t  _ sad  _ or  _ concerned.  _ If anything she looked kind of peeved at him.

“What?” Rhys asked nervously, feeling her fingers pressed gently into his jaw and cheeks.

“Come over here,” Sasha dropped her hand to his arm and guided him to the moonlit window, her lips scrunched up tightly. Once she had Rhys situated where she wanted, she picked up his cybernetic arm and examined it carefully.

“What are you -” Rhys began confusedly.

“Shh,” Sasha interrupted, not looking up at him. He watched her turn his hand over, running her fingers over it. Finally, “Just what I thought.”

“What…. were you thinking?” Rhys asked slowly, nervously.

Sasha looked up at him again, her eyes intense. “It might be metal, and it might be artificial but it’s  _ you.”  _

“It’s… me…?”

“You did something totally crazy ripping out your own arm, eye and whatever that thing is in your head,” Sasha continued, holding his hand close to her chest. “But it was really brave too. I don’t know what happened in Jack’s office up in Helios but I can guess you were faced with some sort of choice, something like ‘Let me live in your body and you can rule Hyperion or die trying to stop me’ or some bullshit like that.”

“It actually involved that skeleton Loader Bot’s in now and me also having that skeleton,” Rhys shrugged and Sasha looked up at him horrified. “It was kinda a deal breaker to be honest.”

“I’d say,” Sasha muttered under her breath, looking back down at his hand. 

Rhys held very still, watching her as she ran a finger over the smooth metal. Somewhat to his surprise, she brought his hand up to her lips and kissed gently. She then pressed each of his fingers to her lips, and finally kissed the inside of his palm.

Rhys steeled himself not to interrupt whatever it was she was doing, he was enjoying watching her but it was making him a tiny bit nervous. No one had ever really paid attention to his cybernetics besides briefly questioning them or giving him a long glance. In Hyperion, it wasn’t unusual to see people with technological enhancements, and even on Pandora’s surface, bandits and psychos seemed to add some sort of crude embellishment to themselves. But this was different.

Sasha put his hand down, and then pulled his face towards hers as she stood on her toes. This time, she pressed her lips to his ECHO eye. His face grew hot and he wanted so badly to catch those lips with his own but instead he let her do what she wanted first. She moved her mouth up to the port in his temple and once again, kissed it. 

Rhys pulled away, and wrapped his arms around her tightly before kissing her finally on the mouth. Her own hand wound its way up to his hair where she wove her fingers gingerly through it, tugging slightly as their kiss deepened. Finally Sasha pulled away slightly, while Rhys peppered her cheeks, forehead and jaw with kisses.

“So… hopefully you… got my point,” she said breathily. “Anyway - maybe I should think about investing in some cyborg arms as well.”

Rhys pulled away confused. “What? Why?!”

Sasha clumsily began to unbutton his vest and shirt, a smirk curling her lips. “Well, if my arm doesn’t get better….”

“Oh my god,” Rhys sighed a little with relief. “Jeez, you actually worried me there for a bit.”

“What? You wouldn’t like me with a cool mecha arm?” Sasha looked up from her one handed work. “Rude. After all I just said to you.”

“No! No, I just, I don’t know, it’s definitely a commitment and your arm is just broken not like going to be amputated - “ Rhys sucked in the cold air as Sasha pressed her lips to his exposed collarbone. “But I mean… if you did…” Rhys leaned his head back, closing his eyes. “I would support you in your - “

“Jesus Rhys!” Sasha pulled away again, and Rhys looked down at her worriedly. “Can you seriously not tell I was joking??”

“Oh - yeah of-of course,” Rhys said gruffly, pushing his hair off of his forehead. Idiot.

“Come back over here, nerd,” Sasha grinned and pulled at Rhys’ collar, back towards the makeshift bed. “Let’s hide from the world some more.”

**Author's Note:**

> this has literally been sitting in my docs for over a year now........


End file.
